Been working on a few different things over the past month or two. One of them is a small project related to the Wandering Phoenix and Roaming Tiger serial, but it's under wraps for the time being.

Some time ago I wrote a comic, using graphics from an RPG Maker (sadly defunct now). As I've started drawing as a hobby I thought it'd be fun and interesting to try and update it, but drawing the pictures myself. Which has proved quite challenging (not unlike videogames, my enthusiasm overshadows my competence when it comes to drawing). Anyway, I'll definitely do a few episodes of that and see how it goes (as much from a time perspective as anything else, drawing the first episode took me a lot longer than expected). I might wait until I've completed the first three episodes before posting that. At the moment, I'm thinking of a title like Knights and Knitwits.

As far as Crown of Blood, the final part of The Bloody Crown Trilogy, goes, there's a watershed some way in. Before then, I want to do some tidying up, cutting some unnecessary characters and sharpening things generally. After that, I need to decide how a specific plot twist goes (you'll know it when you read it). Too far out to give an ETA on a release date but I'm still hoping for the first half of next year.

Beyond that, I'll probably focus on Sir Edric/Wandering Phoenix, because those are both the most fun and quickest to write.

I haven't been updating this blog quite as often as usual but there's a very good reason for that, namely that I've been working hard. And, because of that, my next book, Sir Edric's Kingdom, is out 22 September, just a few months after Traitor's Prize.

It's the latest tale of Sir Edric's assorted misadventures and misdemeanours, as fate thrusts him into the stewardship of the kingdom when King Lawrence is poisoned. Beset on all sides by murderers and monsters, assassins and invasions, he'll need his wits about him. Fortunately, Sir Edric can count on his allies: Dog, the world's trustiest manservant, Orff No-Balsac, the man-eating slaver, Corkwell, Sir Edric's feisty paramour, and the elven enchantress Lysandra. But will Sir Edric be able to keep the kingdom, and himself, in one piece?

It's a cracking tale of daftness and manly heroics, drunkenness and deviousness. It's also just $0.99 until 29 September, so snap it up. Or wait a bit, and give me some more cash. Either's fine.

Not quite sure when, but probably in a few months or so my second short story of the year will be published in the forthcoming Explorations sci-fi anthology (by Woodbridge Press, the same firm that did the well-received Haunting of Lake Manor Hotel anthology, in which I also have a story). Quite pleased, and mildly surprised to be in it, given there were few free slots and many of the authors (Jo Zebedee and Ralph Kern to name but two whose works I've read) are best-selling sci-fi authors.

My story's called Dead Weight, so watch out for that.

As well as an update (see below) on novels, I thought it might be of interest to bang on a bit about the odd process of writing stuff that won't be out for years.

Writing a trilogy's tricky in lots of ways. If you screw up the first part, then you're buggered, so you have to take especial care (not only with quality but also to try and ensure you don't paint yourself into a corner for later books).

Not only that, but you need to have book endings that are conclusive within that book's story arc, whilst still leaving open the over-arching trilogy plot. Time (and reviews) will tell how well or badly I've done with that.

A serious problem is that you can't kill everyone you want to right away, because there are still two books left to come. That said, I did get to write a few juicy deaths, so hopefully readers will enjoy those.

But there are plus points too. If people love book one (as I'm sure you will. Can you name any other books with cross-dressing knights and lesbian princesses? Ok, probably, but are they as good as mine? An absurd suggestion) then you've got one and probably two more sales in the bag.

On a less tawdry note, you can make the plots more intricate and have, over the course of three or more books, characters and their relationships change gradually yet substantially.

In short, you can do more, but there's added complexity to writing because if you get the first book wrong (either because it's poor or because it makes the latter two difficult) then you're in trouble.

Following a Twitter poll (I'm @MorrisF1 for those interested) I've decided to go for an annual release schedule. I'm near certain Traitor's Prize, the second book, will be released a year after Kingdom Asunder. The third book may prove trickier (obviously I'll delay if necessary) but time shall tell.

At the moment, I'm splitting my workload between that and Sir Edric and the Plague (which I'm about halfway through). If needs be, I'll put Plague on hiatus to focus on book three, but I'm hoping I can keep working on both.

Anyway, that's how things stand. If Kingdom Asunder is out this year, that'll be my fourth of 2016 (including two novels and two short stories in anthologies). When Explorations has its release date I'll be sure to bang on about it.

I just wrote a nice progress update, which got mysteriously deleted when I got rid of a different, empty, text box. Bugger.

Anyway, to recap (or cap, given none of you saw the first version):The major additions to Traitor's Prize of this redraft are done. Got a lot of little tinkering points to do, but things are on schedule.

Sir Edric and the Plague is about a quarter of the way done (unusually, I will have at least one significant change to make in redrafting). However, given it'll be released after Kingdom Asunder, Sir Edric's Kingdom and perhaps Traitor's Prize, that's fine.

It's tricky writing two novels at once (well, redrafting one and writing another) whilst also delving into short stories. However, I've got a couple in consideration for anthologies and they will, hopefully, keep things ticking over whilst I get the trilogy ready for release.

When not writing, or trying to play Dragon Age: Inquisition in German (with occasionally hilarious incompetence), I've been fiddling a bit with some drawing.

The picture above, which can also be found under the Artwork tab, is an Egyptian style depiction of Dog fighting a certain creature in The Adventures of Sir Edric. It took a shockingly long time to draw, because I have the artistic aptitude of a baked potato. That said, it was quite enjoyable (and the Egyptian style means I can draw Dog without giving away any details of his appearance). I'm toying with the idea of doing more of these for future Sir Edric releases, (although humans are much harder to draw than animals). Regular readers of my Twitter account (@MorrisF1) will be aware I've also been messing about with some cartoonery (only a little) which is an alternative art style I could try and use. Self-promotion's difficult, especially when it feels awkward, so that may be a better approach than tweeting 'buy my book' and so on. If you have a preference between the two styles, do let me know either here or on Twitter.

Even if I decide not to try and use either approach for marketing, it's always good to have something to do that doesn't involve staring at a screen.

Well, last month was unusually busy. Two books came out (The Adventures of Sir Edric Volume One was out late on 31 March, to be precise), including my first full size book since Journey to Altmortis, all the way back in 2013.

It will not be as long until Kingdom Asunder is released (almost certainly self-published). The results of a poll I ran on my Twitter account (MorrisF1) had the optimal gap between trilogy entries as 1 year. My plan is to get Traitor's Prize (part two in the trilogy) either nearly or completely finished, then release Kingdom Asunder. That'll give me about two years to finish off the third book and, even if it takes a bit longer, there won't be a monumental gap between books.

The first draft of Traitor's Prize is done, but it's undergoing a major redraft (as is normal, for me, at least). I hope to get it finished this year, but that is not certain.

On the comedy front, Sir Edric's Kingdom is finished, and I'm working on the first draft of Sir Edric and the Plague (both novel-sized). In the meantime, there may be short stories (check the Free Stories tab at the top of this page for a couple of Sir Edric's shorts, as well as a story, inspired by true events, starring me).

Going back to recent days: signing your own hardbacks is a weird thing. The hardback is now available on Amazon, and you can also get a signed copy from the Tickety Boo Press website, where they're currently on sale.

And remember, kids, if you do like a book, don't forget to rate, review and recommend it to your friends. Word of mouth is like gold dust for authors.

If you're reading this I imagine you're quite interested in my writing, so please do buy it, review, rate and recommend.

In the short term, there's more marketing to do for Sir Edric, as well as awaiting more reviews. In mid-April, The Haunting of Lake Manor Hotel (horror anthology in which I have a short story) comes out.

I also hope to get Kingdom Asunder released in the second half of the year, but we'll see about that. In the meantime, enjoy The Adventures of Sir Edric.

After a slightly fallow period, many good things are ahead in 2016. The editing of Sir Edric's Temple/Treasure will commence shortly, as will late changes to a short horror story that should also be published in the first half of 2016 as part of an anthology.

And that's just in the short term. Kingdom Asunder is largely done, and the first draft of its sequel, Traitor's Prize, is about 70-80% finished (worth noting redrafting that will take a substantial amount of time). Sir Edric's Kingdom will hopefully be finished off shortly after Temple/Treasure, then I have plans to outline the fourth Sir Edric large story.

Further ahead, I'd like to write a novel around the serial Zodiac Eclipse, published last year by Kraxon Magazine (can be read here, first episode at the bottom), as well as the final part of the Kingdom Asunder/Traitor's Prize story and more Sir Edric shenanigans.

But, most of that is far off. In the short term, I'm hoping to get the short horror story and Sir Edric's Temple/Treasure out in the first half of 2016.

Bit of a gap from the last one (I, er, forgot about November's piece), because I wanted the final bit of Zodiac Eclipse to go up first.

Zodiac Eclipse is a free serial of short stories, 1,000 words each and 12 parts long, which you can read here.

​I really rather like the serial, especially the first part. The idea for the characters and world are something I've had on the backburner for a long time, and when the King of Kraxon offered the chance to write a serial Zodiac Eclipse fit perfectly.

I'd quite like to make a novel out of the world (either incorporating or continuing on from the serial). However, I'm almost exactly in the middle of a trilogy and I don't want to leave Sir Edric's shenanigans on ice for years, so it may take a while.

I'm about 3/5 through the first draft of Traitor's Prize, sequel to Kingdom Asunder (whilst a bit annoyed misfortune/idiocy meant KA wasn't released this year, that will, at least, reduce the gap in releases between it and TP, so it's swings and roundabouts). When I reach Ch30 (currently on Ch25) I'll start doing minor work on the third and fourth Sir Edric stories.

At the moment, I think redrafting/editing Traitor's Prize might be a bugger. I like the various strands of the story, but putting them together in a balance way without leaving multiple major characters out of the action for prolonged periods may be tricky. On the plus side, I do get to kill lots of people.

In other news, a short story of mine will be included in a horror anthology scheduled for release in the first half of 2016. With that, and Sir Edric's Temple/Sir Edric's Treasure coming out, as well as the later release of Kingdom Asunder, next year should be a bit busier than this, in terms of publications.

That said, this year did see the Zodiac Eclipse serial, and my short story Project Phoenix, part of the Prey anthology (money raised going to animal charity WWF).

Kingdom Asunder is almost complete (needs a final going over), and Sir Edric's Kingdom is in a similar state. I have the plot outlined for Sir Edric and the Plague (working title of the fourth story). Traitor's Prize is on the first draft but motoring along nicely.

In the last few days I've finished off the first draft of Sir Edric's Kingdom. Mostly. I do have a few rough patches that need sanding down, but that's mostly small technical stuff or areas I deliberately left grey in case the storyline developed a certain way and I had to come back and change stuff [that has not occurred, meaning less work for me, huzzah!].

It's currently just over 80,000 words, so more than Temple and Treasure combined. The structure is a little less episodic and has some longer arcs, which is a slight shift from the first two books, which have a more chapter-by-chapter approach [not to say there aren't also longer arcs, just that they're more prevalent in Kingdom].

Writing comedy is different in many ways to 'serious' fantasy. The first draft is usually much more fun (you're basically trying to make yourself laugh), but redrafting's much harder. The lack of novelty robs the jokes of humour, and trying to assess them is very difficult.

And that's where beta readers come in. Beta readers cast a constructively critical eye over a work that isn't finished but is quite close to being done, and point out the many ways in which it's awful (in a nice, encouraging way, of course). Occasionally this can be tricky (one joke in Temple was highlighted by two beta readers, one of whom loved it, one of whom loathed it) but mostly it works well.

Kingdom Asunder's redrafting is ongoing, and I am starting to contemplate future full-sized projects. The most obvious is Kingdom Asunder's sequel (it's the first part of a trilogy), and then there's the question of whether I write the fourth entry in The Adventures of Sir Edric or try my hand at a steampunk/sci-fi novel.

And don't forget that as well as the fifth episode of Zodiac Eclipse due out this evening (all episodes available here) May will also see an extra short story, by me, on the excellent Kraxon Magazine website.

The third outing for Sir Edric (planned to be longer than Temple and Treasure combined) is currently ahead of schedule. Normally, my problem is brevity, but I ended up writing 11,000 words for a section that was meant to be 5,000, and the first draft is on course to be done by the end of next month [after which it will be brutalised by beta readers].

In less good news, Kingdom Asunder is a little behind schedule. Extra stuff (map, cover etc) should all be finished before the text is done, but I'm a bit behind on getting the text sorted. It is still almost certain to be ready this year, but the problem may be if Temple's re-release (by Tickety Boo Press) and Kingdom Asunder run into each other. If that happens, then I'll need to delay Kingdom Asunder so I don't have the ridiculous spectacle of releasing both right next to each other. On the plus side, that would delay the wait for the second part of the trilogy after the first's release, but my goal is still to release Kingdom Asunder, then see Temple and Treasure come out.

Plenty of future projects bubbling away in the foetid cauldron of my mind (steampunk story, a sci-fi novel based on Zodiac Eclipse, more Sir Edric shenanigans etc) but right now my focus is firmly on Kingdom Asunder and Sir Edric's Kingdom [working title].

The free 12 part sci-fi mini-series (one episode per month) Zodiac Eclipse is available at the excellent Kraxon magazine. First part is here.

Don't forget to give Prey: Seven Tales of Beastly Terror a look. It's an anthology put together by seven independent authors, including me, with all proceeds going to the WWF (that's the wildlife charity, not the wrestlers).